It was considered by the manager of our branch that persuading workers out of an occupational scheme (especially the NHS) to open a private pension an act bordering on the criminal.

He fired a guy for doing this. (1988)

The essence was that it was impossible to guarantee that the accumulated benefits via equities would out perform schemes based on length of service, final salary etc.

I never managed to sell anything to anyone except my own colleague and vice versa. It was the only way either of us could get paid. It was desparate. Our faces just didn't fit. No contacts or net-work.

I did however pile in the maximum % allowed by law and have never stopped paying. It was/is the primary out going that precedes all others.

Wonga was started by an old running partner of mine. He came to this country in 2006 with the idea of offering loans, short term to pay day and charge for it. They are not meant to be affordable long term loans. The Wonga website is upfront and explains exactly how much you will pay back if you borrow x amount and pay back in x time. No hidden charges and fees charged by banks and other financial institutions.

when i was only working 7 hrs a week i did pay avcs as well as my normal pension......but when i had to stop working the rules said that i could not pay into a pension scheme even if I had the money to do so.....

legal and general were rife at getting people out of the NHS scheme.......

but then a few years later it did pay for me to work every sunday on double time getting the info to restore the pensions.......so I benefitted at a time when i really needed the money

I do feel a bit aggrieved that i can't go for any compensation .......I wouldn't let the financial advisors sell my an endowment mortgage back in the late 80's when they were telling me it would pay off the mortgage and give me 2 or 3 times the amount in cash as well.......I was a mug not to take it up,.........

i refused to opt out of my final salatired pension scheme when approached and i never took up payment protection for anything....

I tried for compensation for a spell of PPI but I suppose a couple of hundred pounds wasn't what the vultures wanted.

I'll never forget the 'mortgage advisor' in the Halifax trying her damndest to get me to agree to an endowment mortgage. I already knew the product to be suspect, but really I wanted to be able to get rid of the mortgage as soon as I could (took 9 years 11 months) so a 'repayment' version was best.

That idea was from New Zealand. They consider mortgages a waste of money so encourage early repayment. The money saved on interest can then be used for investment.

The advice was buy the cheapest property in the best area. Throw every spare bit of cash at the loan. Get rid.

Its a difficult one this. I see both points of view and I know people who have gone both ways. IE loan sharks and these horrible loan companies. I say well done to the Arch Bish trying to be seen to do something but I am not sure that it fits my way of thinking theologically. But thats beside the point. There are other options out there if people need money. These companies offer low sums of money with huge APR. If these people need money for food then their are now very well organised food banks, if they need it to cover mortgages then its a slippery slope and borrowing small sums of money isn't going to help anyway unfortunately.

But if used correctly the loan companies can work out but they are aimed at people sitting at home all day on benefits (sometimes not their own fault) and offering them a 1000£! You only need to watch Jeremy Kyle in the morning to see the adverts and the kind of people its aimed at, its usually loan companies and Bingo games. Perhaps it should be reigned in a bit and not aimed at the vulnerable

My eldest is useless with money.....he really is impulsive........Now I don't know if he would ever know where to find a loanshark....or would be brave enough to go and mix with the criminal types..........

But the payday loan people can be done on his mobile without any embarrissing questions.....and in no time....he would have the money...

He isn't capable of looking after his own finances..but would a payday loan company know that.......

A women this morning on telly; She needed to borrow 275 pounds to buy a new oven. She borrowed it, aiming to pay it back at relatively lower interest rates in 10 days ( as they are designed) but couldn't pay it back so after a year owes 10,000. Moral of the story? Use the hob or make sandwhiches until you can afford to buy it. If you don't have money this week what makes you think you will have it next week? Why can't people get that?

so did the payday loan look at her finaces and assess whether she could pay it back....and advise that they couldn't lend it because she couldn't pay it back and so for the next year should live on sandwiches...

I agree NLR.its how I live.but then we all have different flaws and personalities......

and some peopel are useless with money and these payday loans with their friendly bubbly adverts make it all seem so easy and normal.....without really assessing does the person need a new pS4 game today or can they wait 3 weeks....

I'm not saying that the individual isn't the one that should take the responsibility.......they should..but there should be more checks and services for those who are vunerable to these sort of people...

I don't like those " spitting image" Wonga adverts either. I fear the reason people don't go for checks are because they have such poor credit rating they wouldn't get a cheaper loan. These people are high risk. Lets not forget that people who borrowed recklessly and couldn't pay it back are responsible for the ongoing financial crisis. The savers and scrimpers, and pensioners have been bailing them out ever since.

IMO we need to stop teaching algebra, binary, prime numbers and other guff in maths and teach personal finance instead.

Disagree, if you teach people the fundamentals of mathematics (properly from first principles) who would ever take out a payday loan

They're not the fundamentals, that's the whole point. They are fine if your want to be a scientist or engineer, otherwise you forget the lot the minute you leave school. More practical stuff would benefit more people.

If you want to learn more advanced stuff you should go on and study it separately if you want to.

Previously bookmarked threads are now visible in "Followed Threads". You can also manage notifications on these threads from the "Forum Settings" section of your profile settings page to prevent being sent an email when a reply is made.

Runner's World is a publication of Hearst Magazines UK which is the trading name of The National Magazine Company Ltd, 72 Broadwick Street, London, W1F 9EP. Registered in England 112955. All rights reserved. Runner's World, Part of the Hearst UK wellbeing network